Outschemed OSU staff flips script on Arkansas

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STILLWATER — Before the game, the Arkansas press corps was marveling at the Mike Gundy Show. Gundy’s lack of a filter. His growing status as one of the few (only?) straight-talking football coaches left in America. To the Ozarks and beyond, Gundy is known as a guy who says whatever’s on his mind.

And four hours later, any Arkansas writer who ventured away from the Razorbacks’ shell-shocked post-game interviews found Gundy’s candor in full bloom.

OSU had just beaten Arkansas 39-31 in double overtime despite the Razorbacks dominating the first half. And Gundy identified the cause for the stuck-in-neutral start.

“We wasted the first half,” Gundy said. “Their coaches had better concepts and schemes than our coaches did.

“Our players got out of position some, but for the most part, I thought, particularly, through the first quarter and a half, that they had better concepts, they did a better job of scheming than we did.”

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Gundy threw his coordinators under the bus and maybe himself, too, since he’s the notary on all gameplans. It’s hard to find a flavor outside vanilla in the ice-cream parlor of college football interviews, but Gundy served up some rocky road.

And who can speak against Gundy’s theory? How else to explain what we saw in that first half at Boone Pickens Stadium?

OSU-Arkansas looked like a mismatch. Varsity vs. junior varsity. The Razorbacks were bigger, stronger, faster, better. For the longest time Saturday, you thought all that Southeastern Conference hype was real.

When Logan Ward kicked a 35-yard field goal with 39 seconds left in the third quarter, bringing OSU within eight points of the Hogs, there was only one question to be asked.

How were the Cowboys even in this game?

The Razorbacks’ first-half superiority looked like something from yesteryear, of Cornhuskers or Sooners coming into old Lewis Field, zipping to a huge lead, and leaving the OSU faithful to lament at the kind of football the visitors displayed. Massive running lanes, open receivers, suffocating defense.

You know what happened. The Cowboys staged an amazing rally based not on the biggest deficit (14 points) but on clear superiority. With apologies to my radio segment on The Sports Animal, the real Total Dominance Hour came from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium.

By then, the Razorbacks led 14-0 and were driving to a third touchdown. Arkansas had a clear advantage in athletic ability and football talent. The Hogs were tackling better and blocking better and catching better and defending better and quarterbacking better. There’s not much left, to be honest.

But this is not yesteryear. These Cowboys rally strong and win often. They don’t go gentle. They don’t beat themselves. Those coaches who, sure, can get outschemed also can outscheme.

Coordinators Kasey Dunn (offense) and Bryan Nardo (defense) found winning formulas.

“At halftime, our coaches were fantastic, the adjustments we made,” Gundy said. “Players were really good about absorbing information, not panicking, not pointing fingers, taking it back out on the field and executing it.”

Schemes were a pregame concern for OSU, right? Arkansas offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino has been one of the best masterminds in college football for 20 years, both as head coach (Arkansas, Louisville) and offensive coordinator (Auburn). Meanwhile, Nardo is a 30-something who two years ago today was prepping Gannon University’s defense to stop Millersville.

But Nardo’s unit finally found answers, notably containing Razorback quarterback Taylen Green, whose running and scrambling produced huge plays in the first half but far fewer in the second half. The Cowboys committed a spy, a defender who follows Green everywhere, in the second half, and Arkansas’ effectiveness waned.

The Razorbacks scored three touchdowns on their first five possessions of the game, then just one TD the final nine possessions.

OSU pulled off a rare feat — a double-overtime shutout. The Razorbacks missed a field goal in the first OT, after linebacker Obi Ezeigbo’s sack of Green, then safety Kendal Daniels stopped tailback Rodney Hill for no gain on 4th-and-1 from the Cowboy 6-yard line in the second OT.

Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn finally scrapped his gameplan. Arkansas committed an extra defender to stopping all-American tailback Ollie Gordon, which is what most teams will do.

“We needed to get to the pass quicker,” Gundy said. “Once we started to expand the width of the field …”

Quarterback Alan Bowman threw for 326 yards. “If we would have a better plan of attack based on what we saw early in the game, we’d probably throw for 450,” Gundy said.

OSU’s offense didn’t score on any of its six first-half possessions. But in the second half, the Cowboys went field goal, field goal, punt, touchdown, touchdown, field goal.

Dunn got Gordon involved in the passing game and with pitch outs that got him on the perimeter. The only overtime touchdown came on a 12-yard Gordon run via a pitch.

“We been playing together for a minute,” Gordon said. “It was just great for us to get in at halftime, talk to each other, talk to our coaches, fix what we could fix and then go out there and dominate.”

Several years ago, Gundy talked of how complicated offenses had become and how it was virtually impossible to change a gameplan at halftime. He’s changed his tune now. Schematic changes sometimes are necessary to stay afloat.

“We called a lot of plays on the call sheet and we thought they were all necessary,” Bowman said. “We have about 120 plays, and it felt like we called 90 of them."

And so what seemed like certain defeat turned into spirited victory. The Total Dominance Hour flipped. The Arkansas advantages wilted. OSU’s coaches found a way to counter the Razorbacks’ strengths. The Arkansas receivers who looked so good in the first half were supplanted by OSU receivers making quality plays in the second half.

Gundy’s staff might have wasted the first half, but not the second half. And the Cowboys got a monumental win.

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